Recommended notebook / laptop ~ Recommended LCD monitor
Installation Guide: Linux Mint 4.0 Daryna (a.k.a. The Perfect Desktop)
Prosper.com online community for lending and borrowing money. Bidding on borrowers' loans, lenders get great returns by offering great rates.
Self Made Scholar links to free tutorials, video courses, podcasts, etc.
Jobs : Indeed.com searches job listings from 500 newspapers and websites (including Monster and Yahoo! HotJobs) ~ NotchUp get paid to interview ~ Careerjet searches job websites ~ Jobster integrates Google maps ~ SimplyHired.com ~ PageBites ~ America's Job Bank ~ CareerBuilder ~ Job.com ~ Jobs.com ~ Jobfind ~ JobFinder ~ Job Search ~ Techies ~ Dice ~ Computerwork.com
Northwest Jobs: The Oregonian newspaper ~ Oregon.gov - Employment Department including iMatchSkills and WorkSource Oregon. ~ PortlandJobFinder.com ~ Credentia Staffing ~ jobdango ~ edgelink ~ Lexicon Staffing ~ Staffing Solutions.
Classifieds : craigslist and Kijiji and Oodle Search over 15 million classifieds from 60,000 sites.
Contractors : AngiesList.com Home service contractors reviewed and rated by homeowners. (Computer Geeks, Electricians, Plumbers, Land Scapers, Roofers, Tree Service, Remodeling, Painting, Veterinarians, etc.) ~ ServiceMagic Get matched to prescreened home improvement contractors.
AnnualCreditReport.com (or 1–877–322–8228) The only official site for a free Annual Credit Report from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. (FreeCreditReport.com is Experian's $13/mo. membership program)
OptOutPrescreen.com The official site for opt-in/opt-outs of credit and insurance offers.
National Do Not Call Registry Register home and mobile/cell phone numbers to be exempt from telemarketing calls ("political organizations, charities, telephone surveyors" exempted). ~ WhoCalled.Us phone number database of frequent callers.
The DMA (Direct Marketing Association) Getting off mailing lists/Mail Preference Service
USPS Hold Mail Service
McAfee SiteAdvisor free plug-in for Internet Explorer and Firefox; green=Safe/Good, yellow=Caution, red=Warning!
Filtered Internet : CharacterLink access only approved/vetted/whitelisted websites ~ AFO.NET American Family Online - Internet service provider and/or blacklist filtering. ~ Integrity Online ~ American Family Filter (Bsafe Online) ~ SurfControl's CyberPatrol ~ NetNanny ~ SafeSurf ~ Cybersitter ~ CyberPatrol.
Guardware iShield and ScreenShield Enterprise uses Active Block Advanced Image Analysis (PCMag review)
Free Content Filtering for Windows 2000 or XP (Mac version planned 2007) : Blue Coat's K9 Web Protection and Naomi.
Free Content Filtering for Linux/Unix: DansGuardian (open source).
Speeding up Internet Access : Internet Speed Tests (up and down speeds) and SpeedTest.net ~ TCP Optimizer for Windows. Under the "General Settings" tab, select "Optimal Settings" towards the bottom of the window. Change the MTU value (default is 1500) to 1300, click OK and reboot.
AntiVirus : AntiVir Personal Edition ~ avast! 4 Home Edition (XP64 compatible) ~ AOL Active Virus Shield powered by Kaspersky Lab and scored highly. ~ ClamWin Antivirus ~ BitDefender Free Edition ~ AVG Anti-Virus popular, but detection lower than AntiVir and avast.
Web Browser : Mozilla's Firefox (FAQ) keep your PC from being infected by websites; much more secure than Microsoft's Internet Explorer. John Haller's Portable Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, AbiWord, Pidgin IM (formerly GAIM), etc. Run these apps from portable media (CD, USB thumbdrive, iPod, etc.) ~ Wikipedia's List of portable applications.
Netcraft Find out what software websites are running, which have the longest uptimes, etc. Anti-fraud / anti-phishing Netcraft Toolbar (IE and Firefox) Better than Corestreet's Spoofstick and the Earthlink Toolbar featuring ScamBlocker.
Opera web browser. Small, fast, useful.
Uninstall Adobe Flash Player : How to uninstall the Adobe Flash Player plug-in and ActiveX control
Adobe PDF : free online document conversion (PDF and image formats): Print-Driver.com Universal Document Converter ~ Neevia's online Document Converter eXPress ~ Sumatra PDF fast free PDF viewer; single file.
Create PDF's for free: doPDF and BullZip PDF Printer print-to-file driver ~ ExpressPDF online ~ CutePDF Writer (requires Ghostscript) ~ Ghostscript, Ghostview and GSview ~ PDFCreator ~ PrimoPDF ~ Foxit Reader PDF Tools ~ PDF Online converts many formats to PDF such as Publisher .pub files. ~ PDFTextOnline text extraction
Split and Merge PDF's for free: Gios PDF Splitter And Merger
Not free: Pdf995, PdfEdit995 and Signature995 (free version displays sponsor page each time it's started) ~ docudesk deskPDF ~ PDFill Form Filler ~ PDF Filler free online ~ CutePDF Form Filler ~ Nuance (formerly ScanSoft) PDF Converter.
Fonts / Typefaces : Font Frenzy manager with restore points ~ MyFonts.com WhatTheFont specify a file or URL of a font you need identified ~ Cfont Pro font manager for Windows ~ Fonts500 ~ Better fonts ~ dafont.com ~ Neat fonts ~ Font Garden ~ Creamundo ~ ShowFont.net ~ TypeNow.net free themed fonts.
Office freebies : Office Update
Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats for Office 2000 and later.
Free Microsoft Office Accounting Express. Compare with Averiware.
Microsoft LookOut version 1.30 free Outlook addin from Microsoft to quickly search e-mail, contacts, calendar and filesystem (Google for lookout130.exe)
Word Viewer 2003 (view Word 97 through 2003, Microsoft Works or WordPerfect docs)(updated 8/9/2005 to fix critical security issue). ~ Excel Viewer 2003 (view Excel 97 through 2003 spreadsheets) ~ PowerPoint Viewer 2003 (view PowerPoint 97 through 2003 presentations) ~ Visio 2002 Viewer (view Visio 5, 2000, or 2002 drawings/diagrams) ~ Visio 2003 Viewer (view Visio 5 through 2003 drawings/diagrams; requires Win2K, WinXP or 2K3 Server).
Microsoft Excel Excess Formatting Cleaner Add-in.
Office 2003/XP Add-in: Remove Hidden Data such as change tracking and comments. ~ SendShield free Outlook plug-in cleans documents of tracked changes; optionally convert to PDF.
Attachment Options COM add-in for Outlook 2000 SP3 or higher to change which file types are restricted as Level 1 (hidden) attachments.
Office Add-ons and Alternatives : Jarte word processor based on the Microsoft WordPad; supports rtf, doc, and docx ~ Classic Menu for Office 2007 See also RibbonCustomizer and ToolbarToggle.
IBM Lotus Symphony Documents, Presentations, Spreadsheets.
Atlantis Word Processor trialware for Windows; like Word; high reviews; grammar checking; auto-complete; 4MB ~ AbiWord Only 5MB in size; spell checker (no grammar checker yet); first word processor to support the OpenDocument Format (ODF). (Windows/Linux/Unix/QNX Neutrino 6.2; also Mac OSX native port)
SoftMaker's TextMaker Viewer for Microsoft Word, TextMaker, and OpenDocument Format.
Gnumeric spreadsheets. ~ preezo Presentations for the Web (PowerPoint).
Open Workbench for Project scheduling and management. See also GanttPV, ToDoList, Side Job Track, Time Tracker and Project2Manage
Office suite: NeoOffice for OS X based on OpenOffice (or Novel's OpenOffice.org LGPL fork) multi-platform, multi-lingual office suite, open-source project, compatible with all other major office suites; Word and Excel file-compatible and can save as PDF and the superior OpenDocument format (OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications). ~ NewsForge presents free OpenOffice.org training videos ~ A Conceptual Guide to OpenOffice.org 2.0. Web based callaborative word processing, spreadsheet, calendar, etc : gSyncit syncs Google Calendar and Outlook 2003+ (.NET 2.0) ~ thinkfree Office Online ~ inetWord free online clone of Word (requies IE) ~ Writely allows multiple simultaneous editors and tracks changes (but no CMS-like writer-approver hierarchy yet; acquired by Google early March 2006) ~ Writeboard ~ ajaxWrite Word compatible clone ~ Zoho Writer, Sheet, Show, and Virtual Office ~ Rallypoint ~ JotSpot, JotSpot Live and JotSpot Tracker - Spreadsheet ~ Basecamp Project collaboration, management, and task software. ~ gOFFICE ~ iRows ~ Num Sum ~ EditGrid ~ Numbler ~ 30 Boxes ~ CalendarHub.
Password Generators and Safes : Hashapass generates a strong passwords from a master password and a parameter (e.g., website name) ~ techzoom's Online Password Generator ~ GRC's Perfect Passwords
KeePass and Password Safe open-source password safes. ~ PasswordMaker free, web-based password generator based on master password and website domain name, meaning no stored passwords to crack. ~ RoboForm and Pass2Go top-rated. ~ Dexadine Ballistics Software Acerose Password Vault ~ Ked Password Manager for Linux/BSD.
File Syncronization / Backup / Data Replication : Allway Sync (e.g., WindowsPC1<->thumbdrive<->WindowsPC2) ~ ElephantDrive online backup storage ~ SyncToy for Windows XP to synchronize file changes between multiple locations.
Online: Microsoft's FolderShare synchronize and share files upto 2GB in size ~ YouSendIt.com specify recipient email addresses, upload a file upto 1GB, and the recipients will be sent a link to the file. ~ FileDropper.com up to 5GB. ~ TransferBIGfiles.com ~ Dropload file size limit of 100MB. ~ FileFactory 500+MB limit ~ MailBigFile 1GB ~ 4Shared ~ senduit ~ filemail.
Miscellaneous : SafeManuals.com User Guides for close to 4,000 brands.
Shipping: RedRoller and ShipGooder Search for rates from FedEx, UPS, DHL, Purolator, the U.S. Postal Service, Canada Post and local carriers. TrackMyShipments.com forward your order's email containing shipment tracking # to ship@trackmyshipping[dot]com and see results in one place.
Winmail Opener view TNEF-encoded messages (infamous winmail.dat)
Free Create-Burn ISO CD / DVD Burning software, create ISO image & burn ISO image software.
RateMyCop
NoDaddy.com reasons to not use GoDaddy for domain registration or webhosting.
RapidRepair for iPod, iPhone and Zune.
SimpleWeather week forecast on a clean page.
SharePod fast free file transfer for iPods.
osalt.com (Open Source as ALTternative) Find open source software alternatives to well-known commercial software.
PatentMonkey.com patent searching and PDF downloads.
CoolMacApps.com favorite Mac apps posted, voted, ranked. ~ The Ultimate Mac Software List
OttoBib enter ISBNs and it creates a formatted bibliography.
WinDirStat folder size and disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Windows. See also TreeSize Free and for Linux, see Filelight.
Memorizable.org flashcard wiki
Just One Club Card enter upto 8 barcode #'s from (bulky) cards and print them on a credit card-sized page.
The Newspaper Clipping Generator
numbr (formerly craigsnumber) get a free phone number to use that routes to your phone number for a set period of time (custom expiration).
SandboxIE run Internet Explorer in a sandbox so malicious websites can't affect Windows. Compare with AMUST 1-Defender 2.0 free; allows users with administrative rights to run IE, Outlook, and Messenger with Least Privileged User Account (LUA).
Microsoft's Suggestion / Complaint form: Contact Us.
Taskbar Shuffle or TaskArrange to re-arrange application buttons on the Taskbar. (free, unlike ButtonBoogie 2)
Number2 Free SAT, ACT and GRE test prep and sample tests with scoring and corrections.
Monitor Calibration Wizard ~ Monitor calibration and gamma by Norman Koren.
Web Sites That Shorten Long URLs a comparison of the free websites which can shorten a long web address which email clients often break up into multiple lines causing it to no longer be clickable.
Head First HTML & CSS guide to creating web content.
OpenDisc A collection of high quality free and open source software for Windows.
qliner hotkeys shows onscreen keyboard with all configurable shortcuts when pressing the Windows logo key for a couple seconds.
MyUninstaller better and more informative than the standard Add/Remove Programs. ~ Revo Uninstaller.
Diskeeper Lite (7.0 Build 418) Better and faster than the older version included with Windows 2000 and XP. (Diskeeper Lite 7.0 Build 414 is less annoying; the advertisement window only appears when you launch the program instead of when it thinks you need to defrag or upgrade. Find it online or get it from here.) ~ Defraggler (from makers of CCleaner) ~ JkDefrag free GPL'd defragger. ~ UltimateDefrag Freeware Edition 1.72
Create a Google Account for Google Alerts, Gmail (over 2GB storage with auto-thread grouping), Personalized Search, etc.
BRB Publications Free Government Public Record Sites by State.
Public Data / Criminal Check registered sex offender name and address lookup by Zip Code. Compare with National Sex Offender Public Website.
MicroBilt single lookup source for credit reports, skip tracing, public records, assets, etc. on individuals and businesses.
Department of Labor Posters in free/printable PDF format.
TaxACT Free tax preparation software wizard. Only $8 to then e-file Federal or State returns.
Belarc Advisor builds detailed report of installed software and hardware including the CD keys of Microsoft keys and version for Windows, Office, etc.
WebSurveyor (now EFM Feedback) online surveys.
BugMeNot Bypass compulsory web registration at thousands of websites.
XE.com Universal Currency Converter.
KeyTweak free keyboard remapper for Windows NT/2000/XP.
American Rhetoric - Text and recordings of America's famous speeches.
HowStuffWorks ~ MadeHow.com How Products Are Made.
Constant Contact email list marketing / broadcasting / campaign statistics. Compare with ExactTarget (abuse@ contact Al Iverson has been on Spam-L since '98)
Yes.com show daily song playlists of U.S. radio stations.
Blogging / Blog Archiving / Content Management System : BlogBackupOnline performs regular backups of your blog ~ WordPress ~ ExpressionEngine ~ PHP-Nuke ~ Six Apart's Movable Type (open source) and TypePad and free LiveJournal. ~ Blogger ~ Textpattern ~ iBlog (Mac OS X) ~ NanoBlogger (written in Bash; GNU). ~ Qumuna drag and drop text and graphics into DropPad and upload to several popular blogging services. ~ EEF Legal Guide for Bloggers
Anti-spam: Akismet stops comment spam. ~ Bad Behavior / Bad Behaviour PHP scripts which prevents spambots from accessing your site by analyzing their actual HTTP requests and comparing them to profiles from known spambots. ~ mod_defensible Apache 2.x module intended to block spammers using DNSBL servers.
Business Planning : U.S. Small Business Administration ~ Nolo Law books, legal forms and software. ~ The Art of the Start book by Guy Kawasaki ~ The Zen of Business Plan blog by Guy Kawasaki.
Budgeting / Personal Finance / Check Writing / Bill Pay : BudgetTracker ~ BudgetMap ~ Mint refreshing money management (online) ~ AceMoney Lite freeware personal finance manager ~ Intuit Quicken. ~ Microsoft Money ~ GnuCash (for Mac OS X, Linux, *BSD, Solaris, AIX)
Books : Crimson Reading compare prices of course books ~ Carnegie Mellon University The Universal Digital Library over 1.5M books ~ Open Library online public domain books ~ Chegg buy/sell new/used college books for all campuses ~ Audiobook Podcast Collection (free) ~ AddAll Search and Compare 20,000 sellers and 40+ sites including A1Books, Abebooks, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, BookPool, Christian Book, eCampus, Half, Powells, Walmart, etc. ~ FetchBook.info Compare 126 book stores, 60,000 sellers ~ viaLibri searches 15,000 booksellers ~ BestBookBuys searches dozens of sites ~ Abebooks Search 13,000 booksellers selling 70 million books. (More fine-grained search criteria than AddAll) ~ Barnes and Noble ~ Amazon ~ BookPool New computer/technical books cheaper than Amazon. ~ BookFinder.com Find over 70 million new, used, rare and out of print books. ~ Book Look "America's largest out-of-print book and search information service. We can find any book!"
online books: FullBooks.com
eBooks: Project Gutenberg choose among 16,000 free electronic books.
(Finding/Borrowing) Internet Library: OCLC - Online Computer Library Center ~ The Internet Public Library ~ WorldCat 1B+ items in 10,000+ libraries.
fun book: The Politically Correct: Politically Correct Holiday Stories/Once upon a More Enlightened Time/Politically Correct Bedtime Stories [box set] (Amazon Marketplace).
Grammar : The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. (free online) ~ The Chicago Manual of Style online Q&A.
~ The Gregg Reference Manual - A Manual of Style, Grammar, Usage, and Formatting (Tenth Edition).
Grammar Girl's short mp3 recordings ~ Common Errors in English ~ Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn ~ English Contronyms (antagonyms).
Reference / Dictionary / Definitions / Translation : Bartleby search a huge selection of reference works and fiction books. ~ TheFreeDictionary by Farlex ~ Webster's Online Dictionary Rosetta Edition "Earth's largest dictionary" ~ OneLook 6M words in 990+ dictionaries indexed. ~ Merriam-Webster Visual Dictionary
Acronym Finder over 3 million acronyms and abbreviations.
FoxLingo website language translator extension for the Firefox webbrowser. ~ AltaVista's Babel Fish Translation ~ Google's Language Tools
The Word Detective find the origin of those strange but common words and phrases. ~ Phrases.org.uk The Phrase Finder 1,200+ phrases.
Technology Terms : Webopedia and TechTarget's WhatIs.com ~ Wikipedia.
Chatting / Phone / Calling / Conferencing / Meeting People / Searching Profiles : yoName people search across social networks and blogs.
FuturePhone.com and AllFreeCalls.net make free International calls after dialing their US phone number.
Free411.com and 1-800-FREE411 for free directory assistance (may hear a short "relevant offer"). Compare with GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411)
Hard To Find 800 Numbers for many companies.
IVRhacks and gethuman database phone buttons to press to speak to a human at various companies.
College Directory: FaceBook connects over 2.4 million college students; search for others with the same classes.
Instant Messaging: wikipedia on instant messaging and the benefits of the Jabber (XMPP) protocol ~ meebo access AIM/ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, GTalk/Jabber via web browser (no IM client to install) Compare with KoolIM. ~ Qnext ~ Pidgin IM (formerly GAIM) chat client compatible with AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, GroupWise Messenger, and Zephyr networks. See also the Off-the-Record (OTR) Messaging Pidgin plugin (encyption, authentication, deniability, perfect forward secrecy ) ~ Trillian supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC. ~ If running Linux with KDE, see Kopete. ~ Pandion secure chat client for XMPP and Jabber networks with automatic encyption and other security features. ~ Adiuim X (Mac OS X) ~ Miranda IM (for Windows) small; no install; plug-ins support ICQ, AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, Gadu-Gadu, Tlen, Netsend, etc. ~ centericq text mode menu- and window-driven IM interface that supports the ICQ2000, Yahoo!, AIM, IRC, MSN, Gadu-Gadu, and Jabber protocols. Send/receive/forward messages, URLs, SMSes, contacts, email express messages, etc. ~ EPIC Enhanced Programmable ircII Client. ~ BitchX console app; "Even if Xchat or others have a friendly GUI, BitchX inludes features such as /detach which make it an eggdrop, a bouncer and a client in the same time." ~ BitlBee an IRC to other chat networks gateway.
Tele-Conferencing: TelSpan very inexpensive, several nice features, created its own proprietary Conferencing bridges in 1989; first Conferencing company to provide dedicated "800" numbers to its clients. ~ Free Conference Schedule and manage conference calls at any time for free, even use anonymously/without registration. Compare with FreeConferenceCall.com. ~ Eagle Teleconferencing My co-worker really likes their service and itemized bills ~ Link Conference Service (phone and web)
Web Conferencing: AccuConference (low per-minute rates) ~ GoToMeeting.com
IPTV / Internet TV : Babelgum ~ Joost.
Calling over Internet / VoIP: Zfone Secure Voice over IP by Philip Zimmerman, creator of PGP. ~ JAJAH web-activated telephony and Firefox extension ~ Skype (Windows, OS X, Linux, Pocket PC) See also PowerGramo to record Skype calls and WebDialogs Unyte for free web conference calling via Skype. ~ Gizmo (Windows, OS X, Linux; compatible with Google Talk) or VoipBuster (Windows 2000/XP only). Skype rates Gizmo rates ~ VoipBuster rates ~ Dialcom's Spontania Video4IM (video for Skype) or vSkype. ~ SightSpeed fast video and voice calling. ~ OpenWengo free VoIP, video and chat. ~ yakForFree VideoPhone (Windows). ~ CounterPath X-Lite free version of eyeBeam ~ SJPhone ~ other VoIP software for Linux.
Cell / Mobile Phones: WireFly enter Zip to seach by carrier, phone, plan and compare side-by-side. ~ CellForCash.com Sell your cell phone; postage paid box sent for delivery. ~ Cell Phone Data Eraser instructions.
SMS Search Engine: Google SMS search phonebook, movies, driving directions, etc.
Song ID: 411-SONG Identifies song title and artist by letting it play for 15 seconds into a phone.
Calling Cards: MinutePass $30 for 1000 minutes; 3 cents per minute on U.S. calls; no extra fees; 100 minutes free on 1st refill; .95 shipping. ~ Cards4Sale.com or NobelCom for the best International rates.
Unified Messaging (Phone/Fax # to your Email Inbox): K7.net offers free numbers with Seattle Area Codes; ~ Kall8 for more and toll-free ~ JConnect (J2.com) phone number in many area codes and their Onebox ~ GrandCentral "one number for life" highly-rated. (Google purchased July 2007)
Prepaid Cell Phones : TRACPHONE ~ NET10 ~ T-Mobile Prepaid Phones
Copyrights / Plagiarism : TurnItIn "Recognized worldwide as the standard in online plagiarism prevention...Used by thousands of institutions in over fifty countries..." Compare with SafeAssignment ~ Copyscape Search for copies of your page on the Web and defend your site with a plagiarism warning banner. ~ Creative Commons a voluntary "some rights reserved" copyright. ~ Copyleft for making a program or other work free, and requiring all modified and extended versions of the program to be free as well.
Note Taking (Gather, Arrange, Annotate, Search, etc.) : GoBinder "print" web pages, docs, PDF into GoBinder note pages for collection, arrangement and annotation. ~ Microsoft OneNote Like GoBinder but with OCR/handwriting recognition (great for Tablet PC's) and more file-type options for exporting notes.
Online Banking : ING DIRECT USA Compare with EmigrantDirect and HSBC and GMAC.
OCR / Optical Character Recognition / Document Scanning : Nuance (formerly ScanSoft) OmniPage Professional ~ ABBYY FineReader ~ IRIS Readiris Pro.
Internet Searching and Directory and Online Phone books : plol Public Library of Law
Internet Archive WayBackMachine Browse through 40 billion web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago.
KillerInfo Multiple meta-search engine with clustering. ~ jux2 searches/compares Google, Yahoo, and AskJeeves.
Free games, demos, clips: FileShack ~ FileNuts.
audio/video: soundsnap search for sounds; also by category ~ FindSounds sound file search engine. ~ The Freesound Project SurfWax select from over 1,850 search sources to create customized SearchSets.
HighBeam Research customize Library, Web, Executives, or Reference search preferences.
dmoz Mozilla's open directory project (over 4 million sites - 67,026 editors - over 590,000 categories) (Website submissions here are later crawled and indexed by AOL Search, AltaVista, HotBot, Google, Lycos, Netscape Search, etc.)
AmiPic Web and Usenet mass downloader, search tool, image viewer, etc.
Musipedia The Open Music Encyclopedia - whistle or sing a tune to find it. Compare with midomi.
Infobel World Telephone Directories ~ Internet 800 Directory ~ InfoSpace Yellow and White Pages, reverse lookups. ~ Switchboard (Subsidiary of Infospace but not merged yet. Includes Maps/Directions via MapsOnUs.com)
ZabaSearch searching for a name in a State or all States returns phone numbers and addresses.
pretrieve public record search engine.
Argali White and Yellow free personal edition program searches AmeriCom, AnyWho, Bigfoot, DexOnline, Google, IAF, ICQ, InfoSpace, InfoUSA, Inter800, InternetTollFree, MapQuest, MelissaData, MMI World, NANPA/NeuStar, National Weather Service, SuperPages, Switchboard, TollFreePhone.com, USPS, Weather Underground, WhitePages.com, Yahoo! ~ LexisNexis Consumer Access Program and Accurint; See also ChoicePoint.
Addresses.com claims to be the largest email address database and directory. ~ MESA MetaEmailSearchAgent "The largest email address book worldwide."
Verizon's SuperPages (combined BigBook and BigYellow) ~ Qwest's DEX Online ~ AT&T's AnyWho ~ SBC Ameritech's YellowPages.com (formerly SMARTpages.com) ~ BellSouth's RealPages.
SearchSystems.net Free Public Records Directory "the largest and best directory of free public record databases on the Internet".
Desktop Searching :
Google Desktop Search Outlook/Outlook Express, AOL IM, IE, Office, etc. See also the Enterprise Edition (central control and encryption). ~ Yahoo! Desktop Search
Copernic Desktop Search Free, faster than Google Desktop, finds more results, doesn't require Internet access, remembers search criteria, etc.
X1 Search harddrive files, email, attachments, etc., quick previews (free for home use).
Yahoo! Desktop Search X1 Desktop Search 5.0 for free, without ability to index network drives, Outlook .pst archives, Eudora and Mozilla-based email.
Windows Desktop Search
USPS official address format : ZIP Code lookup.
Maps and Driving Directions : Google Maps ~ Flash Earth zoom in/out and instantly switch between Google's Local and Microsoft's Live Local satellite images with optional labels. ~ MapMyRide use Google to map offroad routes; GPS support.
Programs: Google Earth Google's satellite zoom program (formerly Keyhole.com). ~ NASA World Wind Easily zoom from satellite to any place on Earth.
Gmaps Pedometer measures distance between points of Google's Map (click the "Start recording" button and then double-click points on the map). ~ Yahoo ~ MapQuest ~ MSN MapPoint (MapBlast.com now redirects here) ~ Expedia Maps and Driving Directions (NAVTEQ, which was acquired by Nokia October 2007) ~ map24 (Tele Atlas, AND, NAVTEQ) ~ Microsoft TerraServer-USA USGS aerial imagery and topographic maps.
World Time / Calendars : U.S. Time ~ Time and Date World clock (full/personal), Time Zone converter, Calendar customizer/generator, etc.
Calendar Converter Gregorian, Julian, ISO-8601, Unix time(), Excel serial, etc.
Microsoft Time Zone (Standard) Small tray icon displays time in upto 5 cities.
2006 Calendar Templates for Microsoft applications.
Daylight Saving Time fix for Windows NT/2000
Time Synchonization / Correction for Windows: Rocket Time a good free Internet/atomic time sync Windows program. Compare with Dimension 4. Cratchit.org TimeTool for Windows timeclock for projects.
Airfare / Plane / Flight time : Top 10 Tips for getting the Cheapest Airfare
YAPTA (Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant) track price changes and get a refund for flights when the price drops (the "guaranteed airfare rule").
AvoidDelays.com live airport delays and historically worst airport times and flights. ~ AboutAirportParking.com and AirportParkingReservations.com.
FareCompare and price trends ~ Farecast ~ AirfareWatchdog
kayak searches 120+ travel sites; from the founders of Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity ~ Mobissimo Searching 170+ travel sites. ~ Side Step Search travel sites. ~ QIXO Search around 30 airfare sites. ~ Yahoo! FareChase. ~ Hotwire ~ Priceline.com.
InsureMyTrip.com 63 different travel insurance plans from 14 different companies.
SeatGuru.com Get the details on a plane's seating conditions.
FlyteComm's Real Time Flight Tracking. Compare with FlightAware and FlightStats and AirportMonitor Air Flight Tracking (java).
FlightArrivals.com arrival and departure info for all commercial airline flights over the U.S. and Canada.
Air Traffic Control System Command Center - U.S. Airport conditions
MileMaven (find bonus mile promotions) and PointMaven (earn the most Hotel points on every trip).
Map Channels Hotels Directory hotel search to find available hotels and compare prices.
BedAndBreakfast.com 27,000 inns listed.
Shopping : CouponMountain ~ Icetab.com and DealLocker online coupon codes.
ResellerRatings.com ~ Price Protector monitors your 30 day price protection guarantee from Amazon, Backcountry.com, Best Buy, Circuit City, Costco, Future Shop, Jenson USA, Office Max, Sears, Target...
RetailMeNot coupon codes ~ Brand-Name-Coupons.com and their How to search Amazon for deals ~ TechBargains targeting the best deals in tech such as their codes for DELL. See also StealDeals.net.
Amazing-Bargains ~ Deal-It-In ~ DealCatcher ~ Shopping-Bargains.com ~ DealTaker ~ FatWallet ~ SlickDeals.
Coupon Cabin searches 800 sites and 1200 emails every week for free coupons, coupon codes and deals. ~ CurrentCodes.com and discount codes. ~ Cairo scans circulars sorting sale items by ZIP code, store, and product. ~ JumpOnDeals.
Auctions: eBay (eBay University videos on how to sell; mpire Researcher Details past 30 days; AuctionSplash management software; Fat Fingers and Auction Bloopers to quickly search for misspelled items which therefore receive fewer/lower bids; Toolhaus.org to reseach eBay members; autobidders: Auction Sniper ~ JustSnipe ~ TrueSnipe) ~ ubid ~ Yahoo! Auctions ~ LiveDeal.com small, regional, free version of eBay. ~ craigslist ~ freecycle finder. free online classifieds by city. ~ backpage.com ~ U.S. Dept. of the Treasury Auctions
PriceGrabber ~ PriceRunner ~ PriceWatch ~ Google Product Search (formerly Froogle) ~ Yahoo! Shopping ~ ShopWiki ~ Become.com ~ Smarter
Shopzilla ~ NexTag ~ PriceScan ~ DealTime (AKA Shopping.com) ~ Price ~ StreetPrices ~ mySimon ~ BizRate ~ c|net Shopper ~ SmarterDeals ~ Calibex
ShopLocal print ad inserts and weekly store specials by Zip Code, store, or category and setup sales alerts.
Buyer's Index Search 20,000 Web shopping sites and mail order catalogs with over 300 million product offerings.
newegg (see also "Refurbished/Clearance" tab) ~ ZipZoomfly (formerly Googlegear) ~ CyberPOWER good deals on custom-built gaming systems.
DELL ~ DELL Outlet (refurbished returns) ~ DFS (Dell Financial Services) Direct Sales Buy refurbished directly from Dell and checkout their Dell Auction site.
AccurateIT wholesale and refurbished (including DELL branded) (6 mo. warranty) ~ Overstock.com
eCOST Discount SuperStore.
techsoup The technology place for Nonprofits. Over 240 products from 25 providers including Cisco, Microsoft, Macromedia, Symantec, others.
DiscontinuedItem.com "#1 Directory to find discontinued and hard to find products" and free bulletin board.
FirstGov.gov Shopping and Auctions "Buy new, seized and surplus merchandise from the government. Some items are available online by online auction or fixed price. Others available via public aution, sealed bid, or contact with a realtor."
kelkoo Yahoo's Shopping search engine for Europe: Denmark, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden.
GoAntiques.com ~ TIAS.com The Internet Antique Stores.
GunBroker.com "The Web's Largest Hunting and Sport Shooting Auction." ~ Also search BudsGunShop.com.
Kitco Gold and Precious Metals.
Allergy Buyers Club Compares and reviews allergy relief products (air filters, vacuums, sheets, etc.).
MyRatePlan.com cell phones, service plans, and more. ~ LowerMyBills Compare phone, internet, credit, insurance rates, etc. ~ InsWeb ~ BankRate
CompareCartridges.com ~ InkPool DBA Catalog800 Toner and Ink cartridges.
CableWholesale.com Audio/Video cables, "computer cables, network cables and hubs, switch boxes, USB products, and more." Compare with MonoPrice.com
Swaping / Trading : Zunafish ~ Peeflix ~ PaperBackSwap.com ~ SwapAGift Swap a unwanted gift cards for cash and other gift cards ~ SwapThing list your wares and swap with others; $1 fee per transaction ; compare with swaptree.
Digital Camera / Photography Reviews : DPReview ~ DCResource ~ DCViews ~ Imaging-Resource ~ DigitalCameraInfo.com ~ Steve's Digicams - Camera Reviews ~ Digital Camera magazine reviews ~ Digital Camera Magazine ("DC Mag";UK).
Look for anti-shake/image-stabilization, optical viewfinder, at least 1.8" LCD electrical view finder, at least 4 MegaPixel, boot/start-up time of 6 seconds or less, and recycle time (minimum time between two shots) of 3 seconds or less.
Generally you can't go wrong with circa $300 Canon digital cameras (e.g., Canon PowerShot SD1000) or Kodak EasyShare or Panasonic Lumix models with stabilization / antishake.
USB Thumb Drives / Memory Sticks : small: Petito ~ fast: OCZ Rally flash drives dual channel (review).
SD card reader: Supermedia Handy 6 in 1 USB 2.0 Flash Memory Card Reader
for portable apps: U3 USB smart drives that make software programs, preferences/settings and passwords more portable, personal, and protected.
portable apps: PortableApps.com created by John T. Haller ~ lan.man's TheInfoBox.com Portable USB Apps
Best Of Class Products :
LCD: LG L196WTY-BF 19in 16:10 2ms LCD Monitor 3000:1 300 cd/m2 Black Retail $199
PC Case and Power Supplies: Antec
DVD burning drives: Plextor
CD-R (Record once) media: Verbatim 700MB ~ CD Archival / long-lasting: MAM Gold CD-R.
DVD+R (Record once) media: Verbatim 8X 4.7GB (make sure they were made by Taiyo Yuden and not Mitsubishi or Moser Baer India)
CD and DVD buff/clean/repair: Alera DVD/CD Disc Repair Plus.
Keyboard: Key Tronic E03600 with Ergo Technology (5 levels of force from 35 to 80 grams; more weight for index fingers). Same keyboard as the DAS Keyboard I except the keys are labelled and not blank. See also Unicomp's PCKeyboard.com for new keyboards with buckling spring (loud/clicky like IBM model M) and some with pointing stick and/or trackball mice. See ClickyKeyboards.com for new and old original IBM/Lexmark keyboards. ~ IBM USB Keyboard with UltraNav ~ Kinesis Contoured Keyboards.
Mouse: Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer Optical, Tilting scroll-wheel (sideways scrolling) and 2 programmable thumb buttons (eg., Forward and Backward web page browsing). Wireless version available, but the 2AA batteries make it much heavier. Mac users should consider USB Overdrive to utilize the extra buttons. ~ Ergonomic Zero Tension Mouse.
Memory / RAM: Crucial (a division of Micron) ~ Corsair (for the xtreme over-clockers) ~ The importance of ECC (either "Error Correction [or Correcting] Code" or "Error Checking and Correcting") RAM *and* SECDED motherboards (Single Error Correction with Double Error Detection).
Modem: US Robotics USR 56K V92 External Fax Modem (SKU: USR5686E) (requires PC serial port and serial cable)
Servers: Supermicro SuperServer 1010S-T purchased with AMD Opteron 150 CPU, ECC RAM, and 2 SATA drives (RAID 1) from MBX Systems.
Surge supressor: Tripp Lite’s HTPowerBar10 (5700 joules supression, 1800W 15A output for 10 isolated outlets, 3 coax cables; circa $100)
Speakers: Axiom Home Theaters.
Earphones: Etymotic 6i Isolator Earphones.
MP3 Player: COWON iAUDIO G3 (smaller iAUDIO 5 uses AAA battery) plays Ogg formats; uses single AA battery; works with Windows, Mac and Linux. Or TrekStor vibez. See also dapreview digital audio player reviews.
Handgun: Kahr Arms PM9093 or blackened PM9094 6+1 9mm (highly rated) or the Taurus Millennium Pro Titanium PT111 12+1 9mm.
Two-Way Radio / Walkie Talkie: Midland Radio GXT500 series. 5 watt (FCC max) 14 mile range.
Movies :
MSN Movies ~ Yahoo Movies ~ Netflix rentals by mail, many trailers, customized recommendations, reviews by members ~ BLOCKBUSTER slightly cheaper rentals by mail and some trailers ~ Hollywood Video rentals and trailers ~ Apple Quicktime Movie Trailers ~ CinemaNow movie downloads ~ Fandango showtimes and box office tickets.
IMDb The Internet Movie Database - Search by title, people, character, quotes, see filmography, etc.
Picture / Photo Manager / Image Editor :
Microsoft Photo Info add, change and delete common "metadata" properties for digital photographs from inside Windows Explorer.
smugmug the best site for displaying, sharing, optionally password-protecting or selling photos. printRates digital photo printing prices and reviews
Photo album LAMP stack: Zenphoto ~ JuxtaPhoto
Free online photo album hosting: Yahoo!'s Flickr (with the free account, only the most recent 200 public photos are visible. See also flickrSLiDR to embed slideshow on your website/blog). Compare with Fotki and Zoto and Photobloggers.net and tabblo ~ SnapGalaxy ~ Sharpcast ~ Phanfare ~ Picture Proofs takes only 5% commision on what you sell. ~ Pictage.
Picasa 2 Google's Digital Photo transfer from cameras, organize, edit red eye, crop, slideshows, share, etc. (See also Picasa Web Albums). Compare with Photoscape, Preclick Gold Photo Organizer and Canon's free Zoombrowser EX.
snapfish digital photo printing service. Compare with Kodak EasyShare Gallery and inexpensive winkflash.
Fauxto online paint / photo / image canvas ~ Picnik ~ Wiredness ~ Picture2Life ~ Snipshot ~ Pixenate easy web-based photo editing and integration with Yahoo's Flickr ~ Pixelmator.
Paint.NET Requires Windows 2000 or later and .NET framework.
CD/DVD Printing/Publishing/Transer :
Mixonic Outsourced CD and DVD creating, duplicating, labels/inserts printing ~ Cravedog CD and DVD Manufucturing (Portland, OR) ~ YesVideo Transfer video, VHS, film, slides, photos to DVD, etc. Compare with High-Tech Productions.
Prescriptions / Medications / Pharmacy / Medical Information : KMLE Medical Dictionary meta search with autocompletion and spellchecking.
iHealthRecord free/secure/confidential interactive record that lets you keep all your health information organized, accurate and in one place.
Consumer Health WebWatch rates the top 20 most-trafficked health websites. ~ FIMDM Health News Review
HelpingPatients.org joins doctors, social service groups and pharmaceutical companies to find assitance programs and help uninsured or low-income individuals get prescription drugs. ~ DestinationRX multi-vendor search including Costco's Pharmacy which by Federal law requires no membership card and usually has the best deal. ~ PillBot "Best of the Web" by Money Magazine.
Hospital Compare U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) along with the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA), a public-private collaboration reporting on hospital care quality.
MDhub send a free fax message to any doctor in the U.S. to request appointments, test results, prescription renewals, etc.
Healthline seach engine.
OmniMedicalSearch.com Searches multiple Medical Search Engines such as the CDC, NIH and WebMD ~ MDchoice.com ~ MedlinePlus Health Information from the National Library of Medicine.
The Merck Manual Home Edition, Online Version Based on the world's most widely used textbook of medicine - The Merck Manual - but written in everyday language by 300 outstanding contributors.
Custom Printing (e.g., T-Shirts, Cups) : PrintIndustry.com Receive bids for your T-shirt needs. ~ CustomInk MBG and free shipping in U.S. and Canada. ~ Café Press Shop, create, sell (production to payment processing).
Apartments / Homes / Residences / Real Estate : MapsKrieg combines Craigslist apartment listings with Google maps ~ HotPads ~ ZipRealty Search the complete MLS (Multiple Listing Service) ~ trulia real estate search engine ~ HousingMaps powered by Craigslist and Google Maps ~ DQ News DataQuick Real Estate News' home sales reports by region. ~ RealEstateABC.com ~ REALTOR.com Official Site of the National Association of REALTORS. ~ domania Home services such as checking sell prices in an area. Compare with Zillow and Yahoo! Home Values ~ LendingTree ~ RMLS Multiple Listing Service for the Portland, Oregon's Metro region. ~ HousePlans.com "20,016 House Plans—The Largest Collection of Exceptional House Plans Online"
Escrow Fraud : EscrowFraud.com ~ SOS4Auctions.com the fraudulent escrow site database.
Autos / Cars / Vehicles : TrafficSchool.com Driver's Ed DVD (simulator/video clips, interactive quizzes)
NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) Recalls search engine and their SaferCar.gov website.
Edmunds.com "Best"-Forbes "most useful"-JD Power ~ AutoGuide.com ~ AutoTrader ~ Kelley Blue Book ~ N.A.D.A. (National Automobile Dealers Association) Official used car guide company. ~ MSN Autos ~ Yahoo! Autos ~ CarsDirect ~ Autos.com ~ AutoFinder ~ Cars.com ~ Vehix.com ~ Consumer Guide: Automotive
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety / Highway Loss Data Institute crash test results and videos.
Vehicle history search by VIN : CARFAX ~ AutoCheck
Recalls / Ratings : Recalls.gov Seach Recalls for Autos, consumer products, cosmetics, etc. ~ The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission 15,000+ types of consumer products; 4,000+ product recalls. ~ JD Power Consumer Center Ratings for home, auto, boat, electronics, etc. ~ Consumer Reports ~ Consumer Research Reviewing the Reviewers.
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